A new laboratory for research and teaching related to milk, cheese, ice cream and other dairy products is slated for construction this year at UC Davis. The 1,500-square-foot facility will be housed in Cruess Hall in the food science and technology department's pilot food-processing plant. "The Dairy Foods Research and Education Facility will be a modest, but flexible and efficient facility that will allow us to teach and conduct research about the science and related technologies of milk and other dairy products," says professor John Krochta, who holds the Peter J. Shields Endowed Chair in Dairy Food Science at UC Davis. "We hope the facility will play a part in maintaining California's position as the leading milk-producing state in the nation." The four-room complex, which should be completed and operational in the summer of 2001, will provide space and equipment for receiving, separating, homogenizing and pasteurizing milk. One room will be designed specifically for cheese production but will be usable for ice cream and other dairy products. One room will be designed as a lab to support the activities of the facility, while still another room will provide storage space for dairy-processing equipment. The new dairy facility, estimated to cost approximately $250,000, will be funded by the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources and by UC Davis' College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. In addition, Krochta has committed $100,000 of Shields endowment funds for new equipment for the facility. The UC Davis dairy foods facility will be heavily used by food-science researchers and undergraduate students and by continuing-education classes taught through University Extension.